Seventh Haven
by wolfsrainrules
Summary: It was just accepted that civilians that had the luck to go Flame Active had to join the Mafia. And it was a truth that nine times out of ten, they died. Well in this Universe, Skull takes a different route and that truth shifts and flips until nothing is what it would have been. (AU, pre-canon to canon and beyond. Inspired by Vixen Tail and DRABBLES so short)
1. Chapter 1

Skull wasn't sure how this had started.

Well, no, that was bullshit. Skull knew _exactly_ how it had started.

It started, when he was six, and he first discovered the pretty purple fire. He had kept it hidden of course, people weren't _supposed_ to spontaneously catch on fire, but that was the start of his inevitable path, because _no one_ who could use Flames was permitted to wander for long.  
Skull never said anything to the Arcobaleno, but his first foray into the Mafia was not the day he met them at 19. Skull was 16 years old, ten years after he had discovered his Flames, when an older man in his sixties saw him using his Cloud's Flames.

The older man had had ties to the Mafia, and had been the one to explain what he was using, and the rules and regulations that were enforced about Flames. Skull remembered thinking the fact that civilians were dragged kicking and screaming into the _mafia_ whether they liked it or not was ridiculous.

And while Skull appreciated the heads up, he would not bow to expectations. The condescending mafia man had no idea who he was dealing with. Just because Skull had not been a part of any Famiglia, was not bound by Omerta, and held no loyalty to any organization did not mean he was entirely ignorant of what the mafia did, and what tended to happen to those they considered 'theirs'.

Skull would _not_ be bound by this man, nor any man that tried to cage him. If he would be pulled into the shadows of that world, it would be on _his_ terms and no one else's.

So Skull fell back on skills he hadn't thought he'd have to use again after making it big as a stuntman. The skills from his life before, the skills of a street brat. He dove into the mess, got rid of all his identifying habits, dyed his hair black, wore colored contacts, put on a t-shirt and jeans after tearing them up and getting them dirty, rubbed dirt into his skin, let some of his scars from his time on the street show.

And then he went digging for information.

So that was where the shitstorm started for real. He went digging, and discovered all these 'rules' these expectations, these 'rules' about Flame Users and their actions. It was...ridiculous. What kind of society limited themselves like that?

Skull didn't understand, so he'd chosen to dig deeper. It was while he was doing this, that he found his first information treasure trove. Underground Flame Fighting. No one said anything to the dirty homeless brat that stuck to the edges of the traveling group that ran the fights. Everyone in the fights was there willingly, and it allowed Skull the chance to observe Flame Users that were not the general 'normal' using their Flames offensively and defensively.

A good chunk of the fighters were more like an odd kind of family. Some of them were wanders that just came to fight, but the core of this unit was a family. The ones that changed the locations and set everything up, the Suns that healed the fighters at the end, the Storms that disintegrated any and all evidence of their presence once they were ready to move, the Mists that made sure no one undesirable got anywhere near the operations...

Skull would find out later that 95% of the Flame Users running the fights had started out civilian. At the time, one of the Inverted Clouds in the family decided to take in the homeless kid that had followed their operation, sensing he was the same Flame type.

Skull laughed about it later, but he had panicked when the strange female approached him. He hadn't been bothered much by the fighters after the initial realization that Skull wasn't up to any kind of underhanded stealing or plots.

After the first two months of Skull following the troupe, he had been accepted into the fold really, offered food and a place to sleep. He had seen the woman that would offer to teach him staring at him often, a considering look on her face, but he wouldn't realize until much later that she was contemplating the offer she would come to make.

Still, she had chosen to approach him, and once he had stopped panicking about one of the core members of the group approaching him, and listened to what she was offering to do…

Only a fool would turn down someone offering to teach rare skills.

He learned control exercises, was taught that his teacher's way was not the only way, taught to think and fight, taught that family _shared_ what they learned when his teacher brought in other fighters, with different Flames and had them teach their control methods, and fighting skills to Skull, in case he would learn better another way.

Skull had written what he learned into a journal to better remember, so that he could go back and look over everything whenever he wished. He had slotted into place easily after that, happy with this family of fighters that had taken him in and welcomed him. And when the time came that he had to leave so he could learn more of the world he was being forced to join it was with the knowledge he would be welcomed back whenever he returned.

O~O~O~

It was inevitable that Skull would find helpless usually homeless civilians who got dragged into the underworld and had no idea what they were doing. Most ended up dead or forced to join Famiglia against their will.

Skull may have taken them back to his teacher and family.

Possibly.

And it may have started a trend, causing the family to grow and expand as Skull took back those who needed a home, needed teachers of their own. He explained what his family did, explained what he knew of Flames, pulled out his journal and allowed the others to read his experiences as he brought them home.

And there was a very strong possibility that in doing what he did, he created a civilian-turned-Mafioso Famiglia.

So, Skull knew exactly how this had all started.

It started with his disgust with the mafia and their practices when it came to civilians-turned-Actives. It started with his reaction to those practices.

And it grew from there.


	2. Chapter 2

To be fair, Skull didn't plan on any of it.

He had just wanted to give the people struggling like he had been a chance. He had wanted them to grow, to flourish, because for every one person he sent back to his family, he found 10 cases of civilians dying. And for every 10 deaths he discovered, he found 5 civilians forced to join Famiglia against their wills.

It enraged him.

So, Skull took those he could and he gave them over to his family because he knew his family would let them go after teaching them to survive if they wished to leave.

The end result was accidently creating a safe haven for civilians. And the civilians that left his family would inevitably find others and bring them to where they learned…

Skull didn't plan any of it, but he had accidently become the head of a movement to gather and teach civilian Flame Users.

Not that Skull realized any of this, until he made his monthly trip back to his family- an actual visit and not just him bringing back 'strays' as Valkyrie liked to call them- and found them much, _much_ , larger than he remembered, with faces he recognized, and some he didn't.

Faces that all knew who he was.

His teacher had found him, Valkyrie laughing and bright eyed. "When I let you walk out that door to gather information, I did not expect you to double our numbers within the first month."

He remembered asking "...I doubled the numbers?"

"Well, by this point it's more tripled the numbers. We've had to break into smaller groups so we didn't draw attention to ourselves. The first civilians you sent to us were taught and then they left, only they brought others back to us as well."

Skull had been shocked. That was not his plan. Had never been his plan. To learn that the random act of kindness had spiraled so far, that those he had helped had then gone on to help others…

It had only been the start of it.

"Have you seen the Library yet?" Valkyrie's voice was amused at the sight of his surprise, even as she began to lead him forward.

Skull had turned to face her, confused "The Library?"

"Mmhmm...you started something with the civilians." Valkyrie smirked at him as she pushed open the doors to a small building. "It's not big yet, but it will grow."

Skull had stilled in the doorway, staring around him.

Valkyrie was right- it hadn't been big then, but it had been much bigger than Skull would have expected. He would come to find that in writing his experiences down in a journal, and then sharing that journal with the others he had planted the idea to write their own learning experiences down to share with others.

The result was the Library- where the journals were copied and left for the family to use and read. Each of the journals were color-coded by Flame type for easier identification.

Skull spun in place, his eyes widening as he saw the extent of what a simple action had caused. "This...this is…"

Valkyrie nodded "It is, as of this moment, probably the largest collection of knowledge regarding Flames apart from the Vongola itself." Skull turned to stare her down- even as new to the Underworld as Skull was, he knew of the Vongola- and Valkyrie's lips pulled into a larger smirk "and," she added "It is probably, in a sense, the most unbiased of all Flame Knowledge."

Skull reached for the nearest book, a bright crimson and began flipping through it curiously even as he asked "How so?"

"Well," Valkyrie answered as she reached over his shoulder to pull down a cool blue journal "The people to write this down, are all civilian in origin. So- in a sense- it is unbiased. They have not been raised to believe certain Flame types _must_ be used in a certain way, or act in one particular manner. Each of these journals carries the way _that_ particular user learned. And unlike most others, this collection of learnings is open for everyone in our family. We have a library, and we do not limit what the others learn by their Flame types- who is to say that a Sun won't learn best the way one of the Storms did?"

Skull is silent, the far-reaching consequences of his choice sitting in front of him, in their beginning stages, but even now Skull knows this will shake the foundations of the Mafia.

And he _grins._


	3. Chapter 3

Skull...wasn't sure about being the figurehead of the whole 'collecting civilians' operation.

For one: he had never _planned_ to collect them in the first place. And another: he was _not_ used to people _knowing_ his face when he wasn't being 'The Immortal Stuntman'. The people in the family were all originally brought in by _him_ and the civilians he saved told the ones they brought in about Skull and it just...spread. And that meant that he was well known. In a situation where he _did not have to act the Showman._

It was...strange. Skull wasn't sure if it was _nice_ , but it was definitely strange, to be free to shed the masks of energetic, hyper, death-defying, childish Stuntman. He could be calm, intelligent, cunning, and intense as he liked with them. He was _listened_ to, trusted to be competent by them. Most people looked at his Stage Persona and just assumed he was a fool, weak, stupid.

They didn't think about the math that went into every stunt, the strength it took him to do the actual stunts, the fact that stuntmen learned things like martial arts, fighting, and how to fall, how to lead a crowd, how to _lie_.

They bought the Act and looked no further.

These people...these civilians... _didn't._

They looked at him with gratitude and earned trust in their eyes, trusted him to lead them right when he offered advice, and never doubted his work ethic and choices for a moment.

And perhaps it is that trust, that _belief_ , in him, the mutual understanding between them about the Mafia and their previously civilian lives, that make Skull _want_ to live up to their belief in him. The reason he works himself so hard to understand his Flames and go poking around for information- _**any**_ information- he can get on the Mafia itself.

(He is unaware of it for a while more, but this is the moment Skull's Cloud Nature finally settles on a Territory of his own- this family he is pulling together.)


	4. Chapter 4

**DOUBLE UPDATE. MAKE SURE THIS IS THE RIGHT CHAPTER FOR YOU.**

 **O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~**

When a Cloud chooses a Territory, there is nothing they will not do in the name of protecting what they deem as _theirs_. It is _theirs_ to care for, to nurture. It is instinctive, not even a thought. There is no doubt, no hesitation when it comes to carrying out these instincts. It's the nature of a Cloud. So Skull does not question when he starts visiting the Family more often, how he prowls along the edges of wherever they've set up that week to make sure everything is working as it should, that no one is intruding in an unwelcome manner. He doesn't think about the way he brings back more supplies than he usually would, how he relaxes a bit more than before when he steps into the Family's boundaries.

He doesn't notice the way his Flames leak everywhere he walks, lingering on people and places, an unconscious way of 'marking' his territory to anyone with Flame Sense. The purity and _strength_ of his Flames mean that even if his his visits- lasting anywhere from three days to a week or two if something needs to be seen to- are on the shorter side of the spectrum they coat all the equipment, all the people he walks around.

This is _very much_ a Cloud's Territory, and any Flame User will sense it even long before they approach it.

This has a strange effect on his Family's Fighting Ring.

The Flame Users that approach the Ring know they are fighting in a Cloud's Territory. Even blocks from the actual fighting ring, the presence of this mysterious Cloud's Flame presses down on those who approach in silent warning.

 _This is Mine. You are permitted here only by My Say. Have Care with how you act._

The very strength of Skull's Flames insure that most Flame Users will obey his implied rules. The reluctance to stir a Cloud's temper- much less one of this strength- means that Incidents cut down.

Fighting outside the ring cuts down to near nonexistence, as the Fighters want to avoid damaging the Territory and stirring the Cloud that guarded this place. It also acts as a draw to the truly powerful, those who wonder what a Ring run by a Cloud might be like.

Skull is unaware of what he has done, and has no idea that in pulling the more powerful eyes onto his Family's Ring he increases their Income by quite a few figures.

It is what allows the eventual carving out of a more permanent place for the Training of the Civilians. What allows his family to spread out. To grow.

Skull's inner Cloud _purrs._

This is _his_ , these are _his_ people, and they are growing, flourishing under his care.

He is content.

His people are _happy,_ are _safe._

 **O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~**

 **So I am apparently a horrible person? I've had the chapter before this one done for a while, and thought I posted it up already. I really really did. I was very confused when I finished this chapter today and went to post it only to see the 'missing' chapter.  
So confused. Sorry you all waited when I apparently had the previous chapter ready.**


End file.
